This invention relates to pressure transducers, and more particularly, to a digital pressure/range transducer.
There are a host of applications where it is desired to measure an applied force or pressure. Further, in certain cable applications one not only wants to know the applied force or pressure on the cable but also the location of this force or pressure along the cable. Of course, many techniques for measuring an applied force have been devised and some of these techniques utilize pressure or force transducers. However, many of these prior art transducers have deficiencies which render them unsuitable for universal application. For example, many of the prior art transducers are so constructed that they are not well suited to have a cable configuration. There are, however, some prior art transducers that can be conveniently constructed in a cable configuration, but generally these prior art cable transducers are analog devices. Such analog devices generate noise as well as the signal and therefore, complicated data processing electronics is required to separate the signal from the noise. Further, with many of these prior art cable configured transducers the location of the force along the cable is indeterminable.
This invention provides a digital transducer that avoids the aforementioned problems. Further, the transducer of this invention can be configured as a short segment or as a long cable.